1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to refrigeration apparatus and, more particularly, to an adjustable inventory indicating means for visually indicating the date on which a particular item was stored in the apparatus.
2. Background Art
Frozen food items normally have a limited shelf life. Such items may be stored in the freezers for extended periods of time, and it is difficult for one to remember the dates that the items were placed in storage therein. As a result, the stored food may become impalatable or spoiled because of an excessive storage time.
One solution to the problem of inventorying the contents of a freezer is to individually label each item as it is placed in the freezer. This solution has serious drawbacks. Identifying labels adhesively bonded to the food item covering tend to fall off at freezing temperatures. If the label is placed within a transparent bag encasing the food item, the label often shifts and becomes hidden by the contents of the bag. Further, the writing may become illegible.
Further, because items in a freezer are generally stacked upon one another, it is often necessary to substantially rearrange the contents of the freezer to locate one particular item and observe its date of storage.
One solution has been to provide slots inside the freezer for receiving cards having indicia indicating the stored food type. The cards may be provided on their reverse sides with dates and other pertinent information entered by the user. It is inconvenient to provide written information on the cards and one cannot simultaneously observe both the food type and the written information. Each card must be turned over to compare dates and food type.
In another known system, individual rings are placed over food indicia on the face of slidable drawers. The system does not contemplate an indication of date of storage.
One other known inventorying system utilizes separate date and content indicia which must be correlated by color. It is inconvenient to have to match the separate indicia. This additional step also introduces the possibility of misinterpreting the information.